


The Broken Ones

by fandomsandfries



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, Codependent Winchesters, Eating Disorders, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Good Big Brother Dean, Hoodies, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, Mother Hen Dean, One Shot, Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Older Brothers, Sad Sam, Self-Esteem Issues, Short Sam, Teenchesters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5629567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandfries/pseuds/fandomsandfries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the summer of 1997, the boys take up residence in a backwater South Carolina town. Sam starts to hurt, and Dean demonstrates the love he feels for his baby brother.</p><p>OR</p><p>This was supposed to be a simple response to a prompt, however, it got  little out of hand, and evolved into more of a character study than anything else.</p><p>look inside for additional warnings</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Broken Ones

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! So this is my fist time writing for the Supernatural fandom. This work does imply an eating disorder, so for anyone that is triggered by that, do not read this! This story is full of Winchester fluff, so I hope you enjoy!

Dean isn’t stupid, contrary to what people seem to think. If there is one thing Dean knows, it's his brother Sam. He knows how to deal with Sam when he is sulking, angry, or upset. So when Sam starts avoiding eye contact, and somehow manages to both cling closer to Dean and pull away at the same time? He knows that something is amiss. His big brother senses are going off, his body tingling with the knowledge that something is wrong with the only person who really matters. The next few weeks are spent worrying and trying to uncover the sudden reason for Sam’s sadness. Dean’s job is to take care of his Sammy, and if someone or something is interfering with that, the older boy needs to take care of it.

Sam is freshly 14, still scrawny, all bones, sinew, and wiry muscle. Old enough to want independence, but young and innocent enough to cling to Dean during thunderstorms and scary movies. The backwater town they are currently residing in swelters with the May sunshine, leaving the boy's shirts sticking to their chests in the humid South Carolina heat. They’re supposed to be in town investigating a couple deaths, but in the end, their father had taken off to tend to a different hunt in the next state over. John had promised that Dean and Sam could stay in town until the end of the school year. Later, they would all meet up at Bobby's place for some much needed Winchester R& R. (rest and research.) The actual promise didn't mean much, he was likely to go back onto his word without a second thought, but Dean had promised himself he would cross that particular bridge when he came to it.

Dean has always been it for Sam, the only one to make an effort with him in any way. In a life where the hunt is all that matters, and the role of a father has been placed on the shoulders of a willing and capable Dean, the two boys had learned to make do with themselves. Their careful arrangements and routines only briefly disturbed by their father’s abrupt comings and goings. John Winchester had never been Sam’s true father figure, nor had he been Dean’s. John was under the mistaken illusion that he had Dean wrapped around his little finger. In reality, Dean allowed their father to think that because it made life easier for both him and Sam. John hunts, and Dean and Sam struggle to carve out some semblance of normality in their life.

It starts with the little things. During the day, Sam will shy away from Dean’s touch, hiding in the shadows away from their father’s piercing gaze when the oldest Winchester is home (the hiding isn't new, but usually Sam takes to folding himself into Dean's side in an attempt to merge into him. These days, he spends time curled under the half clean sheets on the motel bed, his back towards his big brother). Sam was never one for vanity, but he begins spending longer and longer in the dirty motel bathrooms, only exiting with extensive cursing and shouting on Dean’s part. Even Sam’s clothing habits change. The boys never had the luxury of money to spend on clothes, so, in general, Sam ended up in Dean’s hand me downs. As it happens, these days Sam had been folding himself into Dean’s bigger sweatshirts, hiding behind large t-shirts and sweatpants. In the end, the biggest change was Sam’s food intake. Sam was never a big eater, not like Dean. He preferred side salads and apples rather than burgers and fries, but he did, as far as Dean knew, enjoy eating. Currently, Sam had taken to picking at his own food until he was excused. Dean realizes it one day as he is watching Sam stare at his own reflection in the mirror, and it's then that he realizes he’s an ass for not figuring it out earlier.

None of the Winchesters ever had particularly high self-esteem, Dean liked to act like a self-righteous bastard, but, in reality, he had issues of his own. However, his are nowhere near the size of Sammy’s. Because even if Dean tells Sam that he loves him every day and hugs him constantly, the real pain comes from Sam’s actual father. John Winchester is not a puppies and encouragement kind of guy, that man was lost when he watched the love of his life burn on the ceiling. Instead, he preferred to point out flaws and threaten his children into submission. He would leave the encouragement to his oldest son. The important thing was to keep moving forward, to keep closing in on yellow eyes, regardless of pain or fatigue. He would leave Dean to deal with temper tantrums, no harm done to any of them. Besides, Dean preferred to have full reign over his little brother anyway.

It was no surprise that Sam was getting the worse of the Winchester self-esteem issues. He was the baby of the family, and he had yet to hit his growth spurt, leaving him the butt of all the height jokes his family could come up with. The thing was, Dean’s jokes were accompanied by grins or affectionate noogies. Dean always tried to make it clear to Sam that the jokes were all made out of love. Their father, however, said things that sounded like jokes, things that should have been jokes, but were made with straight faces, no humor coloring his tone or the words that left his mouth. No child, regardless of the situation, should ever hear the words waste or useless used against them by their own father, no matter how drunk that man may be at the time. In the end, Dean wasn't always around to buffer, and sometimes the words are spat even when he is present. (And dammit, the thought of that shouldn’t break Dean’s heart.)

John loves his boys, but sometimes he finds himself falling into a pit filled with anger and sadness. Instead of working to pull himself out, he tends to drown his sorrows in cheap alcohol and hiss words filled with venom at his own children. The more Sam flinches away, the more vicious John becomes, using Mary and Dean against him in the worst possible ways. In the morning, he will wake up with a nasty hangover and a stomach filled with regret. Still, he won't apologize. Sam would do good to not be so damn soft, Dean spoils him too much, and John doesn't need to encourage it.

Dean doesn’t do chick flicks, (at least, that's what he tells himself) however there are times he is required to put his ego on the line in order to take care of Sam better. So one night when he catches Sam staring at himself in the mirror, instead of cracking a joke he presses Sam to his side and pulls him into a hug. “Sammy.” It’s not a question. He doesn’t say anything else, just whispers his baby brother’s name against the dark mop he likes to call hair. It’s not okay, Dean supposes, this is made clear by the way that Sam stiffens before melting into the embrace, fingers gripping Dean’s shirt like they're the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth. The whole thing hurts Dean in a place previously thought safe from pain. (It’s the part of him that shatters completely when Sam leaves him to step into the world via Stanford, but that’s years, lifetimes even, away from this moment) After a few minutes, he pulls away and smiles down at Sam. "Dad’s gone for the night, how about a pizza and a movie?" The smile he gets in return is hesitant, and if Sam hasn’t regressed back to the age of 3, then Dean hasn’t raised the kid since 1983. “Do we have to get meat lovers?” he inquires quietly. Dean rolls his eyes and digs his fingers into Sam’s side, “Not if you don't want it. I promise we can get all of the vegetables your skinny butt desires.” Ducking his head, Sam beams and threads his fingers through Dean's larger ones.

The plan is simple. Dry erase markers are two for 99 cents at the gas station when Dean enters the next morning for an OJ and cereal run. The idea hits him while emptying his pockets at the register, if Sam can't see how amazing and special he is, Dean will just have to show him. The plan goes into action later that day while Sam is passed out on the couch. After Sam naps, he will roll out of bed, rub at his eyes and make a beeline to the bathroom. When he gets there the words “you are worth it,” will stand out on the dirty motel mirror. It’s not enough, not by a long shot, but it’s a start.

Later, when Sam steps out of the bathroom he has a shy smile on his face, and when Dean murmurs a questioning “okay?” to him later when they are tucked into bed, Sam answers with a content “okay” of his own and tucks his head under Dean's chin. Maybe their life isn’t perfect, and maybe it’s not fair that Dean has to raise his baby brother at age 18, but, in the end, this is all Dean needs to be happy. The next day, encouraged by the positive reaction, Dean creeps out of bed to write encouraging messages on every surface in the motel room.

Three months later, Sam has mostly come out of hiding. He still tends to shy away from his father, but Dean gets his clingy baby brother back. Surprisingly, Sam retains his affinity for larger sweatshirts, but now he prefers to steal Dean's. Late one night under the cover of darkness and the knowledge of an absent father, Sam admits that it makes him feel safe having the smell of his older brother constantly surrounding him. Dean doesn't roll his eyes or make fun of Sam for the confession, instead, he pulls Sam closer to him. Dean still finds him crying in the bathroom some nights, his turning nearly white from the grip he has on the sink. On nights like these, a new routine comes into play. Dean wraps a blanket around Sammy's shoulders and tugs him into his lap. Rocking back and forth, he mutters a never ending list about the reasons he loves Sam. "You're cuddly and smarter than anyone I've ever met, you fight for what you want, and you are always willing to help anyone who needs it." And, without fail, once Sam's cries have faded into sniffles, he will finish with the most important thing. "You make me a better person, hunter, and big brother Sammy. I never want to know life without you, and I hope you know that. Also, I'll kill you if you tell anyone about this." By now Sam will have slumped completely against Dean, all tension gone from his muscles. Dean Winchester doesn't do chick flicks, but for his baby brother he supposes he could make an exception.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! These characters are, regrettably, not mine. I hope you enjoyed my story and feel free to comment anything you want me to know. 
> 
> \- Bye! fandomsandfries <3 <3


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